"With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve." Quaid-e-Azam
When any patriot’s self respect and love for the country is mocked and disrespected, we see an outburst of irrational behaviour as their patience and sincerity is tested not once, but on counts which cannot be noted. Labels and accusations of Extremism and Illiteracy undoubtedly follow, as if the person airing his grievances is a fugitive or a rapist. Nowadays, most youngsters are ashamed of even calling themselves Pakistani. Any association to Pakistan embarrasses them as they feel that being a Pakistani is a stigma and carries excess baggage which they have to tug along for the rest of their lives. They would rather wear a T-shirt with an American flag but refuse to wear anything Pakistani even as tiny as a little broach. In Pakistan, youngsters lack love for their nation, which is why those individuals who crave for this country to succeed must take over so that the flame of hope lives.
It is sad to see Pakistani patriots sway in the hands of ignorance and sleep in the silence of hypocrisy.
The art of adaptability to situations which are realistic and to diagnose solutions for the young generation is something we fail to suffice. Our youngsters run away from problems if they see them coming because their courage to respond to situations like these have been taken away by people around them. Patriotism is a mere word which suffers on this turf as it is disrespected and walked all over like a lost soldier fighting a battle with those he cares most about. A death of a martyr is remembered for a day, mourned for a week and forgotten in a month. Do we still remember Rashid Minhas beyond 6th September, and does M. M. Alam mean more than a street’s name to us?
The reason why the youth of this country seems to be deteriorating into the arms of the western society and their false declarations is because our media and elders ludicrously feed negativity through and through the minds of youngsters which is why they fail to see the righteousness Pakistan possesses. Sadly, our nation is not one where leaders inspire apart from Quaid-e -Azam, hence we can not expect them to guide us if we are to change things; we have to be our own inspiration. We must be the change we have been waiting for otherwise no one else will do so!
In our society, there is unfortunately hypocrisy when it comes to the issue of corruption and VIP culture. Most people in society will proudly reject it, yet it is all too common to see people turn to cronyism and nepotism instead of merit. Even today, people will show "the face of Quaid" to bribe an official, whether it be traffic police or a simple oath commissioner. These are changes in behavior that ordinary citizens must make.
Why do our elders quietly hush away when Pakistan is accused of being a terrorist nation and ignore the headlines when America states with full throttle “Bush fears attack by ‘terrorists hiding in Pakistan’? When does a Pakistani stand up and say “Pakistan fears attacks by American spies and Indian insurgents hiding in Pakistan?” Only our media, elders and people around us can bring that emotion and respect for our country in the hearts of youngsters who are cascading away into the depth of ignorance and hatred.
Unlike Iraq, Pakistan has peaceful tolerance and co-existence of both Sunnis and Shiites; and all religious groups, so we should draw on that kinship and example of unity in our next phases of nation building to tear down the barriers of feudal class and ethnic division.
It is us, the present, which can take the accusations of the past into our fist and crush them into pieces so that no one raises a finger on us or has the audacity to accuse Pakistan of anything which is against the country’s image. We must rise against brutality! We must rise against those who constantly work in groups against ruining the image of Pakistan. And that can only be done with UNITY as our guardian, with the rope of HOPE as our oxygen, and with TOLERANCE and CONVICTION as our repertoire. We must learn how to accept our flaws but not to constantly feed them with negative criticism. Accept, take responsibility for your actions, and FIND A SOLUTION and IMPLEMENT it. Running away demonstrates cowardice and to those who think of us like this we shall prove we are not!
We must learn how to tackle negativity with positive attitude or else we shall forever swim in the gutters of gray! Why let anyone judge us Pakistanis by a few extremists who think they can take this country over by their misplaced perception of Patriotism. Patriots do not KILL, they condemn acts of violence, they do not cause harm to any of those around them; they walk on the same streets with those who disagree with them as RESPECT for ALL is their motto and belief. Albert Einstein said, “Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!”
I believe our generation is struggling because of what we have fed them. We have fed them nonsense of hatred in our own houses our own dwellings. We must decide to stop this now or else there will be no Pakistani who would want to even crave that sense of belonging to a nation which has so much to offer. We need to feel that sense of belonging and must contribute in some way or the other even if it means not throwing litter on streets, to protest against anything unlawful they witness, to stop giving and accepting bribes etc.
We understand that as a nation we have flaws and have suffered politically and economically but which country doesn’t. We too shall learn from our mistakes and rise against the acts of evil. Let time be our witness and our acts be our gifts.
Now as a new Democratic state, we with tolerance, responsibility, reason, vision, patience and faith shall fight against all allegations and prove to the world that this new generation is aware and awake to climb the ladders of success much higher than any country has. In the words of the great Quaid-e-Azam, “There is no power on earth that can undo Pakistan.” Ameen.
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